‘Ah, she’s a great kid though,’ sighed Brant, ‘easily diverted but a great kid.’
‘Diverted!’ frowned Sabina. ‘The clock will strike midnight before she appears and it will all be over.’
‘It’s true,’ said Freddie Humbert, ‘kids nowadays have got no ability to listen to simple instructions.’
‘Here you go, Dad,’ said Quent, returning with a tray of drinks. ‘Two martinis, one with extra olives, one with no olives, one mineral water, ice and a twist of lime and a jade juice, no fruit.’
‘I blame that old devil, the TV,’ asserted Marjorie Humbert. ‘Quent’s usually glued to it.’
‘Having a proper conversation is impossible,’ said Freddie.
‘Maybe Hitch knows where Ruby might have gotten to,’ said Sabina distractedly.
Hitch, meanwhile, was scanning the room. Just where are you Nine Lives, and who in all the underworld are you working for? Who would be insane enough to believe that they could outwit Spectrum, dodge a whole security team and steal what was considered “more precious than gold”?
The shadowy man walked towards the chair. He seemed to be studying her.
‘So, you are Ms Redfort… Ms Ruby Redfort.’ The man pondered her name as if placing it in some invisible title sequence. ‘I am sorry for your discomfort – did Mr Marshall bind you too tightly? He can be very thoughtless.’
He had a disconcertingly kind voice – soothing, calm, at times barely audible.
‘It’s a shame about the temperature. It does seem to stay icy cold in this tower, yet such a mild evening.’
Ruby searched his e yes but saw only blackness: no pupils, no iris. Shark’s eyes, she thought – impossible to fathom. He moved over to a table and poured a glass of water from a jug.
‘Did Mr Marshall even offer you a drink? I imagine not and yet manners, they say, make the man – without them, what are we? Monsters?’
Ruby thought of her father. How often she had heard him say, manners maketh man. He was clearly wrong.
‘A little consideration goes a long way does it not, dear Ms Redfort?’
Ruby wondered when the torture was to begin.
He raised the glass as if in a toast. ‘You’re sure I can’t tempt you?’
Ruby cleared her throat, and tried to gulp back her fear. ‘Who are you?’ she asked.
Why she asked she did not know, she knew the answer and she had no desire to hear it spoken out loud.
‘Forgive me, here I am talking of manners and I have forgotten my own, but then I imagined an intelligent girl such as yourself would already know.’ The man smiled and his white teeth glistened. ‘They call me the Count,’ he said calmly, reassuringly even.
But Ruby’s blood had already run ice cold, her limbs felt all at once very heavy. For she was face to face with the arch-enemy of all arch-enemies. Perhaps only the mysterious Bradley Baker had ever escaped the Count’s chilling clutches – was there really any chance for a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl from Twinford?
She felt for the keyring still clipped to the chain on the back of her jeans – it was a comfort to hold it in her hands. She slid the tiles around nervously, and, without knowing it made a word.
HELP.
Hitch looked at his watch, and the little light that was once again flashing, this time, red.
It was beginning to spook him – Bradley Baker was long gone, yet it was as if the young Bradley was trying to make contact across time and space. The giant clock on the museum wall was ticking, its huge hands clicking steadily towards midnight and still no sign of anything to lead him to either Ruby or Ruby’s captors.
‘Let’s talk about Spectrum,’ said the Count.
Ruby didn’t so much as blink.
‘You’re going to have to spill the beans sooner or later, Ms Redfort, I would urge you to do it sooner – I find waiting such agony, don’t you?’ He smiled.
But Ruby said nothing.
The Count just laughed. ‘A bit late for keeping your mouth shut, isn’t it? If only you could have been less chatty the other day, then you wouldn’t be in this…’ he waved his hand carelessly, ‘little situation.’
Ruby tried to think back. When had she blabbed about Spectrum?
The Count shook his head. ‘I must say, on the whole you are very discreet – we would never have known you were involved at all if it hadn’t been for that one call to your friend, master Crew.’
The conversation with Clancy! One stupid phone call had her all tied up and about to die! Why couldn’t she keep her big mouth shut? It was just one little rule after all. Why couldn’t she just keep it zipped.
‘You bugged the phones?’ whispered Ruby.
She had imagined she was invisible just because she was a kid, but a spy should always assume that someone might be there watching through the keyhole, or listening at the door – it didn’t matter what age you were. RULE 9: THERE IS ALWAYS A CHANCE THAT SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE IS WATCHING YOU.
‘You burgled the house? You took everything but left the phones?’ It was all beginning to make sense: those hang up calls, no one on the line… just the bad guys, checking to see who was there.
The count nodded. ‘Not me personally you understand, as a rule I don’t go in for heavy lifting.’ He chuckled at that one, but Ruby wasn’t laughing.
‘And you stole my parent’s luggage… and tried to kidnap my mom?’
‘Well, there, my dear, I must confess to being quite deceived by your mother. We have been watching her all these weeks, thinking that she was in some way masterminding the museum security – that she had cunningly met with that moustached fellow in Switzerland, thus foiling our plans to silently break in to the museum and take the Buddha of Khotan by stealth.’ He paused. ‘So tell me, how did such a clever girl come up with such – how do you put it? Such dumb parents?’
The little red dot was still flashing. Hitch flicked the watch to radar mode and sure enough it gave a co-ordinate – the signal was coming from the east wing of the museum, the tower in fact. Should he check it out? He couldn’t, not now.
Don’t get distracted, keep your eye on the ball.
Count Von Viscount was pacing round and round the room; he seemed to be enjoying himself. ‘So tell me, why has Spectrum once again resorted to using such young agents?’
Ruby was puzzled. What is he talking about? Young agents?
‘Why, surely they have told you about the wonder kid – the ex-wonder kid, I should say.’
Ruby stared into his black eyes. Is he telling the truth?
‘Ah, I see from your expression that they omitted to mention the astonishing talent that was Bradley Baker.’
‘Bradley Baker? He’s a kid?’ gasped Ruby.
‘Was. Many, many light years ago. He was recruited at seven and grew up to be Spectrum’s finest. I believe I first encountered him when he was around about your age, and what a talent… The only agent to ever make a return visit. Careless of me? Or clever of him? Who can say? But I’m afraid Spectrum lost him in the end.’
‘You killed him?’ whispered Ruby.
‘Oh goodness me no, haven’t